and as I have used some of my Never Before Used Schtuff on my card I qualify to play along.

I apologize for this photo, I wasn't set up properly for taking a photo and I have had to crop it really close to get rid of the clutter around it so it looks a little odd (I think).

Maybe this looks better?

Mmmm not sure. Anyway......

My NBUS is

Tim Holtz Window and Windowbox die

Tim Holtz Small Tattered Florals Thinlits dies

Memory box Woodland Branch Die

Other

Brick Embossing Folder

Distress Inks

Various flower and leaf punches for window box

Wooden Planter embellishment

My Minds Eye Ooh La La PP

I enjoyed making this card for our friends Janice and Philip, glad we could help them with the move and enjoyed our evening with them in the pub later. Wishing them all the very best in their new home.

After being MIA for so long I hope I still pop up on a few blog lists, so if you have called in to say hello a big thank you to you for your visit.

Wednesday, 3 February 2016

It's Wednesday and that means it's WOYWW which stands for .......
'What's On Your Work desk
Wednesday'.

If you too would like to join in the fun then, take a picture of your work desk, table, etc. and share it with lots
of other like minded people.

Hop on over to Julia's
blog Stamping Ground for more info. Hope to see you there.

Hellow desk hoppers,

It's been a while since I joined in with some desk hopping, so here I am today with my desk.

I am just in the process of making a card for the Crafty Cardmakers challenge so on my desk are various die's and punch, papers and flowers etc. At the back of my desk there is a new stencil from Docrafts some new, sale die's (not put away yet) my jar of Starburst Sours sweets (love these) a glasses case that I want to try and re-cover, a stack of embelishments and my January Tim tag along with the stamps I used.

Hope you have a great day and have fun desk hopping, t, I'm off to do some desk hopping myself so see you soon.

Monday, 1 February 2016

"i’m going to be taking you back into the archives of my blog to explore
techniques that might be new discoveries for some, and re-discoveries
for others. each month i will be “remixing” two previous 12 tags
techniques to show you an entirely different outcome using the same
techniques. i plan to highlight new ideas i may have, perhaps show a
new product that might exist now to achieve a similar effect, or just
helpful hints i’ve learned since i originally shared the technique. my
goal is to empower your creative way of thinking and remind you that
inspiration is right at your fingertips".

So, having spent a few happy hours in the archives with Tim, exploring
his techniques, re-discovering the things he taut me and waiting with bated breath to be whisked away on a whirlwind of new discoveries I'm feeling empowered and inspired, my creative juice is flowing and with my fingers tingling in
anticipation, here goes!

I remember these two techniques from last year and in fact the Industrious Metal technique is one of my favourites, though the Chalkboard Technique is one of my least favourite.

I used the gears from the Industrial Blueprint set of stamps for my image and had to throw away my first attempt at the Chalkboard Technique before realizing my second attempt which wasn't much better could be covered by the decoupaged layer which was my third attempt and as it turned out was the best one,so as the saying goes 'third time lucky' was for me!

For the top and bottom part of the tag I used a Cuttlebug (Clockworks) embossing folder, and managed to complete the Industrial Technique without a hitch.

The gear embellishment is cut from Tim's Gadget Gears die and put through the same Industrial process (really happy with how that turned out).

I didn't have any appropriate coloured ribbon so sprayed what I had with some DecoArt media carbon black mister along with a spritz of water and after drying I ran some brushed pewter Distress Stain over the top (love how that turned out too) a gunmetal sort of grey with a subtle shimmery sparkle, just a pity it doesn't show that in the photo's. All that was left was to add a couple of metal gears and a word band.

Eh Voila! my January 2016 tag is finished.

Ta Dah!

I thought I had done my best not to have the little smiley face in the middle of the cog but I see now I have uploaded the photos that he was determined he would. It is rather cute though dontcha think?

I am cutting it fine I know, that's one of my New Years resolutions out of the window already.

All I can say is it's a good job Arizona is 7 hours behind us!!

Thank you for the ride Tim!

Hope you have a great week

Happy Art Making

Hugs Lottie x

Edited
Can you believe it blogger decided to teach me a lesson by refusing to play nicely. I could not get it to publish my post last night, Sunday, until now 11.40 am Monday so of course I have missed being able to link up at Mr Tim's.
I have heard these things happen but I've never had a problem until now.
So lesson learned I must not leave things till the last minute.
TTFN

Tuesday, 26 January 2016

January always seems to be a miserable month everything seems so drab once the Christmas decorations are down the presents are put away, people are back at work and wondering how long until the next holidays and the weather decides to give us everything except sunshine.

It's hard to feel motivated by anything! well almost anything as there is always crafting and the excuse to try out the new craft products that father Christmas so thoughtfully left under the Christmas tree. ( only if you were good of course)

So that is how this post came about. I received a new camera and took some practice pics and when I uploaded them to my computer I ended up sorting through all my uploaded pictures and found the following pictures of cards I made for friends but had not put them on my blog.

A lot of people show their favorite makes of the year, so I thought I would post these cards today.

Friday, 18 September 2015

I am whooshing (that's a Darnell-ism as if you didn't know) in today to link up my card with Darnell's of djkardkreations NBUS challenge. If by chance you are wondering who Darnell is and what does NBUS stand for let me explain.

Darnell is one of the most entertaining bloggers (IMHO) in blog land, she runs a happy, entertaining, fun and witty blog with never a dull moment in sight, and as an added bonus she happily shares her amazing clean and simple style of card making art on an almost daily basis. Add to that the regular photographs she posts of the wonders she sees from her Playhouse and the tall tales she tells of her sidekick and muse, Hammy, who resides there, well aren't you just dying to go check her out ?!

But wait ! I haven't told you about NBUS.

This is an acronym coined by Darnell and stands for Never-Before-Used-Schtuff and the challenge is to encourage us to use our NBUS from the back of the cupboard - bottom of the draw - top of the wardrobe - under the bed stash and create something with it.

This challenge is massively supported by her many friends (followers) and this time for challenge number 5 has many well known sponsors who are generously donating prizes too.

The Card

This is my first attempt at using Brusho powder inks and I would like to thank Eileen Godwin of Eileen's Crafty Zone for the inspiration to try these powdered inks. Her art work is amazing.

I used :-
Penny Black - Floral Display stencil (NBUS)

Brusho - Lime Green and Lemon (NBUS)

Clearley Besotted - Sentiment

I wish I had used a plain white card stock for this card front instead of pearlescent. I don't like the gold sheen of the card with the Brusho colours, also the black ink didn't cover very well on this card, I had to try several different black inks' and it didn't photograph very well either.

I have a lot to learn, ah well, I know for next time eh !

Congratulations Darnell on your 5th NBUS challenge and the great response it's achieved.

Hey you've even managed to drag me out of the doldrums and make a card. lol